First Time Printing On Fabric with Inklingo

There is a new Sample Page (below). It is specially designed for quilters who are ready to print on fabric for the first time. As a bonus, I’ve included innovative instructions for printing and sewing Flying Geese quilt blocks.

There is also a classic rock song to help you drum up the confidence, okay?

Print on Fabric and Sew Flying Geese!

This is a fun way to try something new and make Flying Geese quilt blocks.

You can stabilize a scrap of fabric with freezer paper, put it in the printer, and print right now!

But first, we need music to get in the mood.

Oh, oh, Pretty Woman! Inkjet Printer!

I replaced the words “Pretty Woman” with “Inkjet Printer,” and it works! I’m especially tickled by the end of the fourth and eighth lines. ♥

Do you hear what I hear? Are you ready to fall in love with a printer? Oh, that classic rock beat gets me every time!

I asked ChatGPT to describe the beat, and it did! “This beat, combined with the song’s shuffle-like feel, gives Oh, Pretty Woman its recognizable, strutting rhythm, mimicking the confident walk of the “pretty woman” in the lyrics.”

What an amazing world. It’s 2025, and you are confident about printing on fabric now.

Now, Flying Geese—the Inklingo Way

If you are a quilter, you are confident to try something new, and you have everything you need already:

♥ place an order

♥ create an account and password

♥ Inkjet printer (color, any brand, any style)

♥ free Sample Page PDF from Inklingo

♥ a scrap of fabric at least 8.5 x 11 inches, washed (Washing fabric before printing avoids jams.)

♥ a contrasting scrap of fabric about 6 x 6 inches. (This one won’t be printed, so it doesn’t need to be washed, but I always recommend it.)

♥ 8.5 x 11-inch piece of freezer paper (FP)

Did you know that reams of printer paper are usually wrapped in plastic-coated paper? That will be enough for this!

♥ iron and ironing surface

♥ ruler and rotary cutter/mat (or scissors)

♥ about 6 inches of masking tape

♥ sewing machine (You can sew by hand if you prefer.)

Let’s Print on Fabric—the Inklingo Way!

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. Stabilize the fabric with freezer paper (FP).
   Position the FP with the plastic-coated side on the right side of the larger scrap of fabric. Do not cover the leading edge of the FP with fabric. (Leave about 0.25 inches bare.) Press with a HOT, dry iron on both sides—the fabric side and the paper side. Trim around the FP with scissors (or a rotary cutter). This is simple, but there is a short video to make you feel even more confident.
2. Put the FP/fabric in the printer and print the PDF!
3. I couldn’t think of a third step. It’s that easy!

PRO TIP If you put the fabric/FP in the printer the wrong way up, it will print on the FP instead of on the fabric. Re-press (just to be sure the FP has not loosened), print again, and stick a note on the printer so you know which way works next time.

Voila! You Printed on Fabric!

Ordinary Inkjet printer. Ordinary cotton fabric. Ordinary ink. Ordinary tools. No messy chemicals. I bet you’re wondering why you waited so long to do this. (Some of us have been doing it for decades already. With Inklingo since 2006.)

Sew Flying Geese the Inklingo Way

1. Test the Ink in your printer with the colored squares. (link) We’ll skip the test this time because I’m in a hurry to show you how cool this is!

2. Remove the FP from the fabric. (It will peel off neatly to be used again.) Cut the 8 printed triangles into four fabric squares. (Do not cut the individual triangles apart yet.)

PRO TIP Notice that these triangles are “half square triangles” (HST, for short), meaning they have straight grain on the two short sides of the triangles.

3. Use a masking tape guide on your ruler (as shown below) to cut a square in precisely the right size for four “quarter square triangles” (QST, for short), meaning the straight grain will be on the long side of the triangles.

A picture is worth 1,000 words (at least). Use the masking tape to guide you in cutting one square of fabric from the small contrasting fabric scrap.

PRO TIP The masking tape does not usually fall exactly along one of the lines on the ruler. It marks a size that would be tricky to measure and cut otherwise, but it is perfect for the square you need for four QST. In the olden days, quilters did math, adding 1.25 inches to whatever. It was an approximation of 1.21 inches—not as precise as this method, so it also requires time-consuming and dangerous trimming.)

The Inklingo Way is so cool. We don’t even need to print it, and we get a square that is exactly the right size—without any math! (Monkey is not fantastic with math. I love it.)

Now you’re ready to layer the HST on the square of fabric, right sides together, and stitch, cut, press, stitch, cut, press, as shown below.

Print this page (above) from the free Triangle Tips PDF. There is also an old Flying Geese video on that page.

The Inklingo Way works for ANY size Flying Geese. Brilliant. Everything turns out the correct size without extra trimming at the end.

You Are Ready to Be an Inklingoist

Or an Inklinguist. Either way.

The next step is to visit the Main Beginner’s Page (under the Getting Started tab):

1. Order and download the FREE Diamond Triangle Square shape collection. (I hope you choose to subscribe to this newsletter during checkout.) This sets up a free account and password.
2. Follow the instructions for opening the PDF. It is not the same as other PDFs because the important print options we need for Inklingo only work with Adobe Reader on a computer. A phone, tablet, or browser won’t work this time. The PDF has hundreds of pages of my best work, so it has copy protection, too.
3. Skim through the first chapter of The Inklingo Handbook on pages H5-H48 of the free PDF. The pictures are good. No music though.

Will You Do Me a Favor?

I would love to hear your suggestions for this page—anything that would make it easier for more quilters to benefit from Inklingo, okay? Have I left anything out? (I almost forgot to tell you to remove the FP before cutting the triangles into squares.) Comment publicly below or email me privately at linda@lindafranz.com.

It would also help me if you share this article with your friends. Thank you in advance.

See you again soon!

Linda

PS You can reuse the FP to print more fabric and sew more Flying Geese while you wait for my next tips.  I’ve been writing about Flying Geese for years. Monkey loves them. “Straighten up and fly right.”